Redundancy design with electro-migration immunity

ABSTRACT

An IC interconnect for high direct current (DC) that is substantially immune to electro-migration (EM) damage, a design structure of the IC interconnect and a method of manufacture of the IC interconnect is provided. The structure has electro-migration immunity and redundancy of design, which includes a plurality of wires laid out in parallel and each of which are coated with a liner material. Two adjacent of the wires are physically contacted to each other.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to integrated circuits (ICs), a design structure and a method of manufacturing and, more particularly, to an IC interconnect for high direct current (DC) that is substantially immune to electro-migration (EM) damage, a design structure of the IC interconnect and a method of manufacturing the IC interconnect.

BACKGROUND

Back-end-of-line (BEOL) interconnects, consisting of metal wires and inter-level vias, carry high direct current (DC) in advanced integrated circuit (IC) chip technology. In particular, as IC chip technology advances, the current density required in these metal wires/vias increases with the ever-decreasing dimensions in IC chip technology. Also, self-heating by high current devices raises the temperature of nearby interconnects under circuit operation and makes use of high current carrying BEOL interconnects extremely challenging. For example, a device that uses high current and self-heats (e.g., a resistor, a bipolar transistor, etc.) may heat up an interconnect wire that couples to the device. The high current leads to electro-migration (EM) degradation of the interconnect (via and/or line), causing shorts or opens.

As a result, the current-carrying capability (or the I_(dc) limit specified in the design manuals) is significantly reduced to avoid electro-migration degradation in interconnects. As an example, a direct current limit in a copper interconnect may be reduced by a factor of more than three resulting from a temperature rise of about 15° C. from, for example, 85° C. to 100° C., and by almost a factor of 20 at a 125° C. interconnect temperature. As a result, high direct current at elevated temperatures is almost impossible with conventional interconnect structures.

There are various methods aimed at addressing this reliability issue in metal wires/vias. Known methods, though, result in EM induced voids occurring in any section of the segment, which will cause the wire to eventually open as the void grows in size. Other methods use liners to enclose vias. However, such structures and methods do not provide any means to protect EM damage in metal wires, nor such structures address the EM damage at the via/wire interface.

Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect of the invention, a structure having electro-migration immunity and redundancy of design, comprises a plurality of wires laid out in parallel and each of which are coated with a liner material. Two adjacent of the wires are physically contacted to each other.

In another aspect of the invention, a structure comprises a cluster-of-via structure at an intersection between inter-level wires. The cluster-of-via structure comprises a plurality of vias each of which are filled with a refractory metal and lined with a liner material. The vias that are adjacent to one another are in contact. The plurality of vias lowers current loading between the inter-level wires.

In a further aspect of the invention, a method to fabricate a ribbon wire structure comprises: forming wires in an insulation material, wrapping the wires with a liner material; forming spaces between the wires by removing the insulating material between adjacent wires; and depositing a metal in the spaces to form additional wires between and adjacent to the wires already formed.

In yet a still further aspect of the invention, a design structure is embodied in a machine-readable medium for designing, manufacturing, or testing an integrated circuit. The design structure comprises a plurality of metal wires laid out in parallel and each of which are coated with a liner material. Two adjacent of the metal wires are physically contacted to each other.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention is described in the detailed description which follows, in reference to the noted plurality of drawings by way of non-limiting examples of exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

FIG. 1A shows a top view of a conventional wide metal wire;

FIG. 1B shows a top view of a metal wire in accordance with an aspect of the invention;

FIGS. 2A and 2B show the electro-migration induced voiding in FIGS. 1A and 1B, respectively;

FIGS. 3-7, 8A, and 8B shows fabrication processes and respective structures for manufacturing a ribbon-wire structure in accordance with an aspect of the invention;

FIG. 9A shows a top view of a conventional wide metal wire;

FIG. 9B shows a top view of a metal wire in accordance with an aspect of the invention;

FIGS. 9C and 9D show fabrication processes and respective structures for manufacturing a jogged-shaped wire structure in accordance with an aspect of the invention;

FIG. 10A shows a conventional via configuration;

FIG. 10B shows a side view of a cluster-of-via structure in accordance with an aspect of the invention;

FIGS. 11A, 11B, 12A, 12B, 13-15, 16A, and 16B show several fabrication processes and respective structures for manufacturing the cluster-of-via structure in accordance with the invention; and

FIG. 17 is a flow diagram of a design process used in semiconductor design, manufacture, and/or test.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention relates to an IC interconnect for high direct current (DC) that is substantially immune to electro-migration (EM) damage, a design structure of the IC interconnect and a method of manufacture. In implementation, the present invention provides a metal wire design to overcome EM induced damage, which includes a plurality of narrow metal lines (wires). The narrow metal wires are separated from one another by a layer of conductive liner material, which serves as an EM blocking layer as well as a mechanical reinforcement layer within the overall metal wire structure. Such a cluster-of-wire structure carries several unique features, including:

(1) a plurality of fine wires;

(2) each wire is surrounded by the liner material; and

(3) no spacing between any adjacent wires, referred to as ribbon wires.

In further embodiments, a cluster-of-via structure is provided which not only significantly lowers the current loading of each via, but also provides a larger via density (e.g., via opening per unit area) to address electro-migration concerns occurring at the via/wire interface. This approach forms sufficient and robust contact when two wires cross each other, especially for thinner wires.

Redundant Metal Ribbon Wire

The present invention provides a metal wire design to overcome EM induced damage. More specifically, FIG. 1A shows a single metal wire line 10. Comparing FIG. 1A to FIG. 1B, the single metal wire is split into a plurality of fine metal (or metal alloy) wires 10 a, or a ribbon-wire configuration. The plurality of fine wires 10 a may be in parallel to one another, with adjacent wires 10 a contacting with one another. In this example, a power supply wire with a width of 10 um (or “w”) and length of 1 mm is split into five (or any “n” number) fine wires (all shown as 10 a), with each fine wire 10 a having a width of 2 um (or width of “n”). Those of ordinary skill in the art should understand, that the wire can be of other dimensions and be split into more or less metal wiring lines, depending on the particular application as discussed herein. As such, the example of FIG. 1B should not be considered a limiting feature of the present invention and is but one illustrative embodiment of the present invention.

As further seen in FIG. 1B, each fine wire 10 a is wrapped with a layer of electrically conductive liner 12. The liner layer comprises refractory metal materials that are electrically conductive and mechanically rigid.

As seen further in FIG. 1B, assuming identical net metal width and pitch for each fine wire 10 a, no extra space is provided nor needed between adjacent fine wires 10 a. Also, with the liner 12, the overall width of wire design of the present invention may occupy a slightly larger area (e.g., about 1% to 5%) than a conventional design.

In embodiments, the width of the fine wire 10 a is narrow enough to promote a bamboo grain structure for improved EM resistance. In this contemplated embodiment, the grain boundaries span across the entire line width and perpendicular to the current flow direction after the metal annealing process, while being wide enough so that its resistivity is not impacted by undesirable electron scattering at the wire/liner interfaces. In general, a width of Al or Cu metal wires range between 0.1 m and 1 μm, which should be sufficient to result in a bamboo grain structure so as to suppress EM degradation, while their intrinsic resistivities are still maintained. (In a conventional metal layer having a thickness of 0.1 m to 0.5 μm, the thickness rather than its width predominantly limits the grain size.)

The effectiveness of EM prevention with the disclosed design is shown schematically in FIG. 2B. When a pin-hole or defect exists in a conventional metal wire 10 (see FIG. 2A), the void size will increase as the electron wind flows across the metal line (arrow). The size of the void will continue to grow during the lifetime of the circuits. This will ultimately deplete the metal wire and open the metal wire, at which moment EM permanently damages the circuit. On the other hand, if the same pin hole or defect occurs at the same location of the disclosed ribbon-wire with plurality of fine wires 10 a, the void will only grow within a single fine wire and will be confined and quarantined by the liner 12 as seen in FIG. 2B. Such a confined defect will not significantly damage the whole wire structure, and thus the disclosed ribbon-wire provides redundancy against EM damage and greatly extends the lifetime of the metal wire.

FIGS. 3-8 show respective processing steps for fabricating the structure of FIGS. 1B and 2B. As shown in FIG. 3, three fine wires 10 a are formed in an insulation material 20 via a conventional method. Liner material 12 wraps the fine wires 10 a. A hard cap layer 50 is formed on top of the insulating material 20, which serves as CMP (chemical-mechanical-polish) stop layer.

As seen in FIG. 4, a photo-resist mask 60 is used to remove the insulating material 20 between adjacent fine wires 10 a. More specifically, using a conventional lithographic process, an opening 65 is formed in the photo-resist mask 60 about selective adjacent fine wires 10 a. As seen in FIG. 5, a selective RIE (reactive ion etching) process is performed to remove the insulating material 20 between adjacent fine wires 10 a without damaging the fine wires 10 a and liner material 12. As seen in FIG. 6, the liner material 12 is re-deposited which conformally coats the etched surface 80.

As seen in FIG. 7, a layer of metal 70 is then deposited on the structure of FIG. 6. As seen in FIG. 8A, the metal 70 forms the ribbon-wire after a CMP process step. That is, the metal forms additional fine metal wires 10 b. This forms the ribbon structure of the present invention. In FIG. 8B, the hard cap layer 50 can be removed using conventional stripping processes.

With this approach, layers of liners are presented between two adjacent metal wires. These liner layers can effectively quarantine the void growth due to EM. Also, each fine wire within the ribbon-wire serves as independent interconnects which connect two nodes. The ribbon-wire structure provides redundant links, which remains functional even when any of the links is defective due to defect or EM damage.

Further embodiments of using liners as barrier layers against EM damage are shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B. In FIG. 9A, additional liner layers 14, or walls, can be oriented perpendicular to the length of the entirety of the metal wires. Alternatively, in FIG. 9B, additional liner layers 14, or walls, are oriented perpendicular to the length of individual fine wires within the ribbon-wire. These liners 14 and all other liners can be placed in any strategic location by etching and filling via conventional phase shift lithography technique, with aluminum being patterned using dry etching. For example in FIG. 9B the perpendicular liner material can be offset between adjacent of the individual metal wires.

In another embodiment, liners 12 can be placed in a direction perpendicular to the fine wires 10 a to adopt jogged-shaped wiring lines as shown in FIG. 9C and FIG. 9D. For example, using double Damascene processes the shape of the first metal patterns (FIG. 9C) and second metal patterns (FIG. 9D) can be irregular. The design of these metal shapes can be generated using software simulation based on optimization of both conductivity and EM protection. In other words, the shaped metal pattern can be designed to yield the best EM protection for multi-void cases. As discussed herein, these additional liners 12 serve as barriers to contain EM voiding along the line length direction. Also, these liners 12 provide extra mechanical reinforcement to enhance the rigidity of the overall wire, which improves EM resistance. Also, these additional liners 12 within the fine wire 10 a will not have significant impact on the total wire resistance, since the thickness of these liners 12 is about 20 nm or less.

Cluster-of-Vias

Vias provide electrical contact between inter-level metal wires. Vias filled with refractory metals, such as tungsten (W), are not prone to EM damage, but they have higher resistivity than metals (e.g. Al or Cu) used for wiring levels. To reduce via resistance, Al and Cu metals are also used to form vias for multiple-level metal interconnections. However, a bottleneck of wiring resistance still often occurs at via levels, especially at those places where there are an insufficient number of via contacts. As seen in FIG. 10A, voids are typically found at the upper portion of the vias due to the EM effect, which eventually leads to an electrical open. Under such an event, current loading of the remaining vias is exacerbated and EM damage is accelerated there.

In order to avoid this situation, the present invention uses a formation of a cluster-of-via structure which not only significantly lowers the current loading of each via but also provides more redundant vias per unit area with respect to EM concerns. More specifically, as seen in FIG. 10B, a cluster of vias 15 is formed with liner material 120 therebetween. The vias are filled with refractory metal and, in embodiments, are parallel to one another. The cluster of vias effectively lowers the resistance of the structure and prevents the formation of EM voids from opening a circuit. This approach is necessary to produce sufficient contact when two wide wires cross each other.

FIGS. 11A to 16B show method steps for forming the structure of FIG. 10B. FIG. 11A is a top-view of a plurality of vias 15, which are formed using a conventional via formation method. The corresponding cross-sectional view is shown in FIG. 11B. A mask 100 is used to print redundant via patterns 110. The top and cross-sectional views of redundant via patterning are shown in FIGS. 12A and 12B, respectively.

The second set of vias are aligned and formed in between the first set of vias. The insulating material is removed in FIG. 13 using a conventional RIE etching processes. Liner materials 120 are deposited after the removal of photo-resist in FIG. 14. After metal deposition 130, shown in FIG. 15, and CMP, the final cluster-of-via structure is formed by use of conventional deposition processes (see, FIGS. 16A and 16B). As shown in FIGS. 16A and 16B, the vias 15 are clustered together with liner material 120 therebetween.

Design Structure

FIG. 17 shows a block diagram of an exemplary design flow 900 used for example, in semiconductor design, manufacturing, and/or test. Design flow 900 may vary depending on the type of IC being designed. For example, a design flow 900 for building an application specific IC (ASIC) may differ from a design flow 900 for designing a standard component. Design structure 920 is preferably an input to a design process 910 and may come from an IP provider, a core developer, or other design company or may be generated by the operator of the design flow, or from other sources. Design structure 920 comprises an embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 1B, 2B, 9A-9D and 10B in the form of schematics or HDL, a hardware-description language (e.g., Verilog, VHDL, C, etc.).

Design structure 920 may be contained on one or more machine readable medium. For example, design structure 920 may be a text file or a graphical representation of an embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 1B, 2B, 9A-9D and 10B. Design process 910 preferably synthesizes (or translates) an embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 1B, 2B, 9A-9D and 10B into a netlist 980, where netlist 980 is, for example, a list of wires, transistors, logic gates, control circuits, I/O, models, etc. that describes the connections to other elements and circuits in an integrated circuit design and recorded on at least one of machine readable medium. This may be an iterative process in which netlist 980 is resynthesized one or more times depending on design specifications and parameters for the circuit.

Design process 910 may include using a variety of inputs; for example, inputs from library elements 930 which may house a set of commonly used elements, circuits, and devices, including models, layouts, and symbolic representations, for a given manufacturing technology (e.g., different technology nodes, 32 nm, 45 nm, 90 nm, etc.), design specifications 940, characterization data 950, verification data 960, design rules 970, and test data files 985 (which may include test patterns and other testing information).

Design process 910 may further include, for example, standard circuit design processes such as timing analysis, verification, design rule checking, place and route operations, etc. One of ordinary skill in the art of integrated circuit design can appreciate the extent of possible electronic design automation tools and applications used in design process 910 without deviating from the scope and spirit of the invention. The design structure of the invention is not limited to any specific design flow.

Design process 910 preferably translates an embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 1B, 2B, 9A-9D and 10B, along with any additional integrated circuit design or data (if applicable), into a second design structure 990. Design structure 990 resides on a storage medium in a data format used for the exchange of layout data of integrated circuits (e.g. information stored in a GDSII (GDS2), GL1, OASIS, or any other suitable format for storing such design structures). Design structure 990 may comprise information such as, for example, test data files, design content files, manufacturing data, layout parameters, wires, levels of metal, vias, shapes, data for routing through the manufacturing line, and any other data required by a semiconductor manufacturer to produce an embodiment of the invention as shown in FIGS. 1B, 2B, 9A-9D and 10B. Design structure 990 may then proceed to a stage 995 where, for example, design structure 990: proceeds to tape-out, is released to manufacturing, is released to a mask house, is sent to another design house, is sent back to the customer, etc.

The resulting integrated circuit chips can be distributed by the fabricator in raw wafer form (that is, as a single wafer that has multiple unpackaged chips), as a bare die, or in a packaged form. In the latter case the chip is mounted in a single chip package (such as a plastic carrier, with leads that are affixed to a motherboard or other higher level carrier) or in a multichip package (such as a ceramic carrier that has either or both surface interconnections or buried interconnections). In any case the chip is then integrated with other chips, discrete circuit elements, and/or other signal processing devices as part of either (a) an intermediate product, such as a motherboard, or (b) an end product. The end product can be any product that includes integrated circuit chips, ranging from toys and other low-end applications to advanced computer products having a display, a keyboard or other input device, and a central processor.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the invention. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.

The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements, if any, in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present invention has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the invention in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A structure having electro-migration immunity and redundancy of design, comprising: a plurality of wires laid out in parallel and each of which are coated with a liner material, wherein at least two adjacent wires of the plurality of wires are contacted to each other, wherein grain boundaries of the plurality of wires span across a width of the plurality of wires and perpendicular to a current flow direction across a length of the plurality of wires, the grain boundaries having a width so that their resistivity is not impacted by electron scattering at an interface of each of the plurality of wires and the liner material, and wherein the plurality of wires comprise a plurality of vias each of which is lined with the liner material and filled with a metal, adjacent ones of the plurality of vias being devoid of insulator material therebetween.
 2. The structure of claim 1, wherein an overall width (“w”) of the plurality of wires is configured to carry maximum current load that is demanded by a design ground rule.
 3. The structure of claim 2, wherein an overall width of the wires laid out in parallel and coated with the liner material is about 1% to 5% higher than that of a single wire.
 4. The structure of claim 1, wherein a width of each of the wires is narrower than a threshold of 1 μm and below to promote a bamboo grain structure for improved electro-migration (EM) resistance.
 5. The structure of claim 4, wherein grain boundaries of the bamboo structure span across an entire line width and perpendicular to a current flow direction.
 6. The structure of claim 1, wherein the liner material comprises a refractory metal material which is electrically conductive and mechanically rigid.
 7. The structure of claim 1, wherein the liner material is configured to confine and quarantine EM induced void growth to individual wires of the plurality of metal wires.
 8. The structure of claim 1, wherein the liner material runs perpendicular to a length of all of the wires for blocking EM-induced voiding.
 9. The structure of claim 1, wherein the liner material runs perpendicular between single wires of the plurality of wires for blocking EM-induced voiding.
 10. The structure of claim 1, wherein the liner material that is perpendicular is offset between adjacent wires of the single wires of the plurality of wires.
 11. The structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wires is a ribbon structure.
 12. The structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wires is jogged shaped.
 13. The structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wires forms a cluster-of-via structure at an intersection between inter-level wires, the cluster-of-via structure comprising the plurality of vias each of which is filled with a refractory metal and lined with the liner material.
 14. The structure of claim 13, wherein the liner material covers a top side of each of the plurality of vias, and the liner material is shared with a top one of the inter-level wires.
 15. The structure of claim 14, wherein the liner material covers a bottom side of each of the plurality of vias, and the liner material is shared with a bottom one of the inter-level wires.
 16. The structure of claim 15, wherein the liner material covers an entire length of a top side of each of the inter-level wires and an entire length of the bottom side of each of the inter-level wires.
 17. The structure of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wires are in side by side arrangement, with a top portion being planarized.
 18. The structure of claim 17, wherein the liner surrounds sides and a bottom of each of the plurality of metal wires, with a top side of the plurality of metal wires being exposed.
 19. The structure of claim 1, wherein the liner material on a side of at least one of the plurality of vias is a shared sidewall liner amongst adjacent ones of the plurality of vias.
 20. A design structure embodied in a machine readable medium for designing, manufacturing, or testing an integrated circuit, the design structure comprising: a plurality of metal wires laid out in parallel and each of which are coated with a liner material, wherein at least two adjacent metal wires of the plurality of metal wires are contacted to each other, wherein grain boundaries of the plurality of wires span across a width of the plurality of wires and perpendicular to a current flow direction across a length of the plurality of wires, the grain boundaries having a width so that their resistivity is not impacted by electron scattering at an interface of each of the plurality of wires and the liner material, and wherein the plurality of wires forms a cluster-of-via structure at an intersection between inter-level wires, the cluster-of-via structure comprising a plurality of vias each of which are filled with a refractory metal and lined with the liner material, and the liner material covering a top side of each of the plurality of vias.
 21. The design structure of claim 20, wherein adjacent ones of the plurality of vias are devoid of insulator material therebetween.
 22. The design structure of claim 21, wherein the liner material is shared with a top one of the inter-level wires.
 23. The design structure of claim 22, wherein the liner material covers a bottom side of each of the plurality of vias, and the liner material is shared with a bottom one of the inter-level wires.
 24. The design structure of claim 23, wherein the liner material covers an entire length of a top side of each of the inter-level wires and an entire length of the bottom side of each of the inter-level wires.
 25. The design structure of claim 20, wherein the liner material on a side of at least one of the plurality of vias is a shared sidewall liner amongst adjacent ones of the plurality of vias. 